Buckley: Free Libby Now!
One of the greatest political (/conservative) thinkers of the last century William F. Buckley, wrote a column for National Review in which he calls on Bush to pardon Libby. Buckley essentially argues that although Libby broke the law, he should be pardoned, because, here it comes, he caused no real harm and he is not a bad guy. O, and the ones who say that Libby should go to jail do not care about justice, they simply want to “damage the Bush administration.”
Of course, all of the above is no reason to pardon someone. Libby, Buckley admits, broke the law, lied and, by doing so “he hindered the execution of justice.” The logical, and legal result: jailtime.
It surprises me that an intellectually honest traditional conservative like Mr. Buckley – who is a firm believer in the Rule of Law – would argue that Libby should be pardoned for before mentioned ‘reasons.’ They are not ‘reasons,’ they are excuses.
Libby caused, thus writes Buckley, no damage at all, to no one. I wonder whether Mr. Buckley watched Plame’s testimony before US Congress?
I greatly respect William F. Buckley Jr., but I would hope that he would be above overly partisan politics like this.
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5 Responses to “Buckley: Free Libby Now!”
Nice to see you make a post about your hero
The entire free Libby lobby is intellectually dishonest. Especially after all of the outrage directed toward Clinton by these very same people.
You can find a good compilation of quotes on both subjects at Glen Greenwald’s blog. What a bunch of clowns, too bad they are running our country.
I guess this makes Buckley the equivalent to Paris Hilton’s psychiatrist, and Bush the potential equivalent to the sheriff of LA county? LOL
When Bill Buckley was chewing on a pencil while devouring debate opponents on PBS’s ‘Firing Line’… he was my hero.
When learning to sail and finding out that Bill Buckley wrote one of the ten ‘must have’ books on sailing… he was my hero.
When reading the Blackford Oakes spy novels and seeing what a talented, engaging author (‘f’ word and all) Bill Buckley was… again he was my hero.
It now seems that Bill Buckley has reached a point in his life where someone ought ask him to draw a clock face that says three o’clock and see how he does.
Does Libby meet any of the standards for a pardon?
Sure doesn’t seem like it.
What’s striking to me is that you read his column, but failed to comperhend it. What’s wrong with wanting people in prison who actually cause harm – and not wanting to put people in prison who caused no harm? Seems quite simple.
Libby’s prosecution was an act of politics, with no reflection of the spirit of the law. Valerie Plame was engaging in political dirty trickery. Increasing her profile gave her exactly what she wanted. Hell, he did her a gigantic favor.